Raven's Curse
by SIEGris
Summary: An arranged marriage where both parties love each other? It seems cartoonishly unconventional to most, but it is very real to both Rena Forrest and Raven Blackguard. However, nearly nothing ever ends happily ever after, and new evidence has come to light that everything may, in fact, end in a terrible way...with blood everywhere.
1. Chapter 1

**RAVEN'S CURSE**

Chapter One

Hello, listener. You do not know me, but before our time together is through, you will most surely be well-acquainted with me.

Or, I should say, before yours and someone else's time together is through, you will most surely be well-acquainted with me. And I pray to the nonexistent gods that allowed these subsequent events to transpire that you do not make my same mistakes.

My name is Rena. Rena Forrest. Be sure to listen well to my words, and take heed.

Or you, as I, will fall to naivety.

**July 2****nd****, XX34**

I met Raven Blackguard through necessity – my family was in poverty, and he was attracted to me. I was to marry him to save my family's lives. However, he was alone. His family was deceased. At this time, we were both the same age – twenty.

But in my case, I wanted him not for his wealth. I wanted him because I felt as though he made me whole when I was around him. I saw devotion in his eyes. He saw the same in mine.

We were walking amongst the pond in our town when I first spoke to him. I had only heard rumors about him, I had never seen him. I despised the prospect of arranged marriage. I had been sure he would be conceited and snobbish. A person like that was hardly the sort of man I would be inclined to spend the rest of my life with.

I stood next to the pond, under the shade of the oak trees. The summer breeze blowing over the lake helped to alleviate the sweltering heat of the summer. The crimson dragonflies buzzed to and fro amongst the reeds on the shores, and the flowering lily pads scattered throughout the shimmering waters. There was the audible chirping of the birds singing sweetly through the air, and the clear, cool scent of morning dew.

My thoughts were interrupted shortly by the sound of boots _clack_ing on the stone path that led around the pond. I turned shortly to see a modestly dressed gentleman. I then turned back to the waters and continued waiting. He stopped by me, and said:

"Good afternoon, miss. May I inquire as to who you are?"

I was shocked. With the caste my family was born into, everyone looked down on me due to my scruffy appearance and my family's considerable lack of financial strength. I turned quickly to the gentleman who had spoken to me as his equal – no…his better – to get a better look at him.

His hair was combed down, but not in a way customary of wealth. Just in a way that allowed it to lay flat, in such a way that it partially covered his amber irises. He was quite tall and well-built. His ensemble was black, a simple suit and a black necktie. His pants were black, too, as well as his shoes. But all this was an afterthought, because my eyes continued to be drawn back to his handsome face.

I thought he must be delusional. I was of the lowest class. He should not have been speaking to me in that manner. And then I realized.

"Are you…Raven?" As soon as the question was out, I cursed myself. My insolence was far out-of-line. I braced myself-

"Why, yes, I am. Rena Forrest, I presume?" Hearing his voice - that is to say, paying better attention to its tones - I blushed. His voice was a smooth baritone. It sent chills running down my spine. And he did not berate me for my insolence.

He was nothing like I had expected.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Raven extended his right hand to me. In my flustered state, I began to extend the right also, but caught myself mid-attempt and awkwardly received it with my left. I looked up into his eyes, embarrassed. But I saw nothing but light-hearted amusement.

Who _was _this man?

We talked for hours, sitting down to rest together on a nearby bench. I learned that he was a biologist. His interest had been sparked by the acquisition of his prosthetic arm. As we talked, I felt myself growing closer to him. I felt my heart beating harder and faster.

I felt love.

When at last the sun set and he had to go on his way, I felt a crushing sadness, alleviated only by his promise that we would meet again the next day. He waved to me over his shoulder, illuminated against the lamps lighting the path, and disappeared around the bend behind the trees.

I would have killed if only it would have made the time move faster.

**July 29****th****, XX34**

By this time, the fact that it was an arranged marriage didn't matter – in fact, the actual marriage had been set for three months later. However, we were so drawn to each other at this point that we wanted the marriage much sooner.

That day, July 29th, XX34, we were wed, with much fanfare. During our kiss at the altar I felt no regret.

Raven was surely the one I wished to spend the rest of my life with.

During the reception, we greeted people from various families who had come to offer their congratulations. By day's end my hand had grown tired from shaking.

Fortunately I used the correct corresponding hand each time.

The only congratulation of note was one made by the sister of Raven's previous wife, who had passed away shortly after marriage. Her name had eluded me then. However, under the circumstances of its offering, I would be hard-pressed to call it congratulations.

She came up to me and shook hands with me, but her next words were solemn.

"I would love to congratulate you," she said, "but, you see, there is no reason to celebrate. For soon, you too will become a victim of the Blackguard Family's curse."

Suddenly I felt a chill, even though the air was still warm.

"Curse? What curse?" I asked, slightly unnerved.

"I am sure that being Raven's new wife, you are aware that he is alone. His family is dead, with no extended family to be found. They all went missing after the beginning…incident.

"Raven's family, while Raven was away, were all killed by a burglar who broke into the family's manor. All in the exact same fashion – there were holes found in the chest. They had all bled to death. On their face were the same expressions of shock and horror. And once the bodies were taken for examination, they vanished. And ever since, Raven has lost loved ones in that exact fashion. His family has cursed that house in their anger. Rena…"

She gripped my shoulders, and stared directly into my eyes. "Never walk the halls of the Blackguard Manor after dark."

She turned and walked away, leaving me shaking. "See you soon…I hope."

20 minutes later, Raven came and found me, staring into space, terror on my face, thinking back on the words of his last sister-in-law. He turned me around and looked into my eyes, his own deeply concerned.

"Rena, what's wrong?" he asked. I snapped out of my stupor and answered.

"N-nothing. Nothing. I'm fine."

Raven stepped back, still concerned. "Very well, then. Shall we depart?"

"All right." I gripped his hand tightly as he led me out of the field to the carriage.

_I'm just deluding myself. There is no curse. There is no such thing as a curse. _

…

_Is there…?_

**Sieg: We cool? We cool. **

**Prototype: You're writing a story with NO VIOLENCE. I never thought I'd see the day. **

**Sieg: Oh, shut your goddamn table. I've written plenty of meaningful stories like this one. **

**Prototype: Name ONE. **

**Sieg: Uh. Well…there was "How the Raven-Grinch Frigged Up Christmas…"**

**Prototype: Parodies don't count. Besides, that was the most immoral story on the entire page for weeks in the future, and that's counting all the M-rated content that showed up. **

**Sieg: Well, in that PARODY, as your literature-overcritiquing philistine ASS calls it, there were LESSONS LEARNT. **

**Prototype: Name ONE. **

**Sieg: Shit. **

**Prototype: Anyway, that'll be all for now. See you all in the near future. **

**Sieg: Don't make it sound like you're the author, you plagiarizing-**

**[The fight proceeded for hours. But seriously, see you all later.**

**-Sieg]**


	2. Chapter 2

**RAVEN'S CURSE**

Chapter Two

(A/N: **Thanks to Yumi for pointing out that I forgot to list the classes, which I totally did. Sorry bros. **

** Raven: Blade Master**

** Rena: Night Watcher**

** But you know. It's only so you can picture their appearances better. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy this chapter.)**

…

…

…

Ah. You're back.

I can see it on your face…you don't believe me. Well, I don't blame you for it. Why would you?

But it's not my duty to make you believe. It is only my duty to inform.

…

I was shown to my room by the butler, Oberon. Oberon was a kindly man who, for some strange reason, committed himself to always wearing a full suit of armor. He was a bit…eccentric.

"Miss Rena Blackguard. This will be your chamber." He gestured to the door after we walked into the eastern wing of the house. He followed by bowing, and exiting with a parting blessing. "I sincerely hope that Mistress and Master enjoy many long years of happiness together. Good night."

_So do I._ My mind flashed back to the words of the lady I had spoken to earlier. _May it at least be more than a few days. _I opened the door, which squeaked slightly, and stepped into my room, looking around.

My belongings had already been moved here. Already this room was nicer than any I'd ever lived in before. There was a closet against the back wall, against the left wall was a large dresser, and against the right wall was a bed.

I changed into nightwear, turned off the lights, then climbed into bed and closed my eyes. I drifted off to sleep almost immediately; I had forgotten the lady's warning.

_I stood in the Blackguard manor foyer. I looked around. It was fully lit. I heard the sound of rain washing over the roof above…and the occasional clap of thunder. I wondered what I was doing here; just seconds ago I had been asleep. Perhaps this was a dream? _

_Suddenly the doors on the back wall opened. A wind tinged with blackness blew from it, turning the candlefire an eerie black, and dimming the lights in the room until they were nonexistent – only the moon shone down. Soon even that faded to near-blackness. _

_I looked around, my heart drumming in my throat, my breath quickening. I was panicking. I had to leave the foyer – but suddenly the walls closed in and I was trapped within a chamber just spaced wide enough to fit the door from with the black wind had come – and that was the only way out of it. _

_I hesitantly walked through. The entire space before me was a mass of writhing dark fog. My eyes began to dart around in a manner of frenzied paranoia. I heard whispers of malice through the gloom. I already felt a scream building deep within me. My breath was harried and short. Then, behind me, I heard the most terrifying sound I had ever borne witness to in my entire life. _

_A footstep. _

_I screamed and broke into a run, but I couldn't put any distance between me and those terrible footsteps…those terrible, erratic, mismatched footsteps. _

_Then I bumped into a wall and fell backward, sitting down hard. _

_When I looked up at the wall, suddenly I was startled by a flash of lightning, after which the thunder came a moment later. The flash of lightning illuminated a single word smeared over the wall one single word, in fresh blood:_

_**LIAR**_

_I turned around, trying to distance myself from the terrible things I was seeing. But once again, I was trapped in a chamber in which there was only one closed door, just like the foyer door I had come through to enter this dreadful realm of nightmares. It slowly began to open. I ran for it, hoping for escape. _

_And through that door I heard a terrible mismatched, random-interval clacks. _

_The terrible clacking of footsteps._

_I backed up, but I hit the wall. All I could do was wait in silent, horrified shock as the footsteps got nearer…and nearer…an inevitable dread creeping over my soul. _

_The footsteps stopped right outside the door. I couldn't hold my overflowing, abject terror anymore. _

_CLICK._

_I screamed…_

"Rena!" I heard Raven's concerned voice near my side. I realized I was sitting up.

I was in a cold sweat. I was breathing just as I had in my nightmare.

I still swear that I felt something behind me.

Watching me.

Biding its time.

"Rena, are you all right?" Raven inquired, taking my right hand, kneeling at my bedside. Concern filling his voice. Barely registering, I looked to him.

"I-just…a nightmare. I'll be fine." I managed.

"Are you sure? I can-" Raven started, but, regaining my senses and my mobility, I raised my hand and cut him off.

"Just…let me think…" I let my breath recover.

Raven opened his mouth to say something more, but stopped. He then got up and opened my door, casting one last glance over at me, before vanishing into the lit hallway and closing my door behind him. His footsteps faded away down the tiled hallway.

_Click. Clack. _

I jumped, startled. I could have sworn those footsteps…no.

I lay back in my bed, feeling exhausted even though I had been sleeping the whole time. Quite reluctantly…I drifted back to sleep.

_This time, there was nothing but a pure black void. Across from me stood someone. _

_ I walked closer to get a better look._

_ The person was a girl who looked very much like me, except that she wore a simple white robe in place of my current apparel. _

_ "Hello," she said. Untrusting, I drew back. _

_ "Why do you recoil?" she asked. _

_ "I cannot trust anything. My previous dream has taught me that." _

_ "I am different. In fact, right now I am your only chance of staying alive long enough to escape the 'curse.'_

_ "My name is Seris," the girl said. "I was Raven's last wife before yet another tragic event stole me away from the world of the living…as it did his other betrothed."_

_ "What do you…mean? Am I going to die?!" my pulse quickened. My breath once again grew short rapid in my heightening fear. _

_ "That is for you to decide…and for me to assist in." Seris drifted closer. She put her hand on my face. "Go behind the foyer door. Go to the very end of the left hallway. And open that door." _

_ She drew away. "Go, and awaken." _

My eyes snapped open. Outside was faint sunlight, but no one else in the house was awake. In almost a trance, I dressed myself in a black Victorian-era styled dress, and left my room, going back up the left hallway, down the foyer stairs, and standing in front of the set of foyer double doors. With a shaky hand, I reached out, took hold of one of the doorknobs, and opened the door, stepping through into a left-right corridor.

Following the advice of this "Seris," as she had introduced herself, I followed the left side of the hallway to the very end, and I opened the door.

Inside that door was a blank white room. But that wasn't what was so alarming.

Because on the back wall, in dripping blood, was the word

**LIAR**

…

**Sieg: DUN, DUN, DUUUUN. **

**Prototype: Oh my GOD. I never fully appreciated how bent you are in the head.**

**Sieg: So?**

**Prototype: It only makes me love you more.**

**Sieg: Okay. Cool. **

**Prototype: **_**So much moooore…(Slurpslurpslurp.)**_

_[See you all in the near future – till next chapter.]_


	3. Chapter 3

**RAVEN'S CURSE**

Chapter 3

** The scene opens at midnight. A gravestone lies atop a grassy hill, paled by the light of the lunar body shining above. The tree beneath which lies the gravestone is barren, lifeless. The gravestone itself is jet-black obsidian, glinting sinisterly in the moonlight. On it shine the red runes**

** [Sieg G.]**

** [Hiatus]**

** Suddenly the sky clouds over, blacker than the night which they inhabit. Red light flashes inside them, thunder rolling across the expanse of plains. A flash of red light, a bolt of searing, evil energy strikes the gravestone. It splits apart. The sky remains clouded, but the lightning has stopped. There is a deafening silence, save for the echo of thunder. **

** A hand breaks the earth above the gravestone. A red, furred hand. It grasps the earth, and more earth shifts. It flies up as a burst of black energy moves the sod off of the figure. The figure stands. Another bolt of lightning reveals a furry with locks of black hair like Tom Hiddleston standing silhouetted against the red flash. Thunder roars. The figure throws his head back and exults, a sound somewhere in the dark oblivion between a fox's growl of hatred and a sinister peal of laughter.**

** It is the author, Sieg, in all of his terrible glory. The Dungeon Master. **

** He has returned from his hiatus. **

…

…

…

_You have returned anew. Did you sleep well last night?_

_Nightmares, you say? _

_Don't worry. I did not sleep well either. _

_Let me tell you why._

…

I stood in shock, and horror, facing the white wall.

_Just like my dream,_ I thought, my heart pounding. I dropped to my knees, clenching my head between my hands. _But what does this mean?!_

"Rena?" I heard Raven's voice calling to me, and my nerves calmed. I walked out into the corridor to meet him. He turned to me, his face a warm, welcoming smile.

"Rena," he said. He reached out to me, and I ran into his arms, holding him tight. I was scared. He obliged.

"What is the matter?" he questioned. I looked up into his eyes, and knew I could not tell him what I had seen in that room. What I had seen in my nightmares.

"I had…a nightmare." I finished. Raven seemed to understand.

"It's all right, Rena. There's nothing wrong with being afraid of what you see in the shadows of dreams. But those shadows do not permeate your waking moments, unless you let them. As long as I am with you, you will have no reason to let them. I will protect you." He held me tighter.

"I had nightmares also, when my family was killed," he continued. "They tormented me for nights on end, beseeching me to help them. But I could not. Because the fact of the matter was, they were dead. They were gone. Eventually the dreams disappeared when I got over their deaths." He looked into my eyes. "Just forget about your dreams, Rena. They aren't real."

I breathed deeply. Of course. Just coincidence. Maybe I had already seen that room and just forgot. A glance into that other room had allowed it to invade my sleep. Perhaps I had just found another way into it. My doubts vanished as Raven held me. I leaned up and kissed him.

We stayed like that for a few more precious moments, then Raven stood back.

"I must go out of town on business, but I will be back tomorrow morning," he said. "Researchers at the university request that I give a lecture on biology. And Rena…" he said before he turned away.

"Do not go into the basement. It is quite expansive. You might be lost down there. Also…you might find things down there better left…unexplored." He turned. "Farewell, my love."

I put my hand over my heart, a nervous habit. "Farewell, Raven."

_The basement? Why? What should be left…unexplored?_

I went to the window and watched him call a carriage, board, and eventually go down the hill, over the valley beyond, and out of sight. Then I turned and walked back into the door at the back of the foyer. At the end of that hallway, straight ahead, was a large door with a bar over it.

I approached the door, and with great effort pushed the bar up, and set it down, sure not to make a noise for fear of being discovered.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. Immediately I was greeted by a gust of icy air. This had to be it.

The basement.

I looked down and saw stone steps, descending into the inky abyss. I took a wary step, and my shoes made a clack in contact with the first step. It echoed down the staircase, making an eerie sound. I continued, making sure to constantly look behind me to deter the unsettling feeling I began to get with every step.

Eventually the stairs ended and came out into a room lit dimly by a chandelier that hung on a chain from the ceiling. The room was of the same material of the stairs – cold, gray, stone bricks. Nothing was in it but a door on the far end of the room from me – and a wooden table with one lone candle on it, next to which was a book.

I walked over to the table and opened the book. It appeared to be a log, of sorts…no, a diary.

On the front of the diary was the name "Seris."

I opened to the first page.

_Today was the marriage day of Raven and I. _

I gasped. Could this be…

My mind flashed back to the events of the day before. The lady who had first warned me.

_Seris' relative._

I kept reading.

_It was a grand wedding. The only one I've been to that wasn't terribly dull. After the wedding we came back to the manor. We said goodnight, but he left me parting words. _

"_Stay clear of the basement."_

_That night I pretended to sleep. But the minute I heard no one awake, I slipped out and entered the basement. I had to find out why he had given me that warning. In the first room of the basement was a table. On that table was a diary._

My eyes widened. What was this? Seris had found a diary on the…no, it couldn't be.

_I opened it. In it I found that his last wife had been given the same warning. I shut the book and stopped reading. I couldn't. This had to be why he had told me to stay out of the basement. But what if she had written the reason for the warning in the pages of her diary? I was about to open it again when suddenly there were footsteps. I was going to be discovered, so I opened the door on the opposite end of the room, and continued into the terrible abyss of the Blackguard Manor's sublevels._

Suddenly behind me I heard clacking coming down the stairs. It was most likely Oberon. But if it was, he would tell me to leave the basement, and I wouldn't find out what it was, because he would definitely confiscate the diary as well. I looked around for a place to hide, but all I found was the option of going into the door on the opposite end of the room. I dashed to the end of the room. Before I opened the door and went in, I had a sudden thought.

_Is this what Seris felt?_

I stood there, about to reconsider, but just then I heard the footsteps about to reach the basement floor. I ceased my hesitation…and continued into the unknown depths below, the door making no sound as it closed behind me except for a condemning metal clang.

…

**Me: And there you have it. The most dramatic return-from-hiatus notice ever written. **

**Prototype: I'll say. But to be honest it felt like the story anyway until you mentioned reanimation.**

**Me: Yeeeah. Well anyway, thank you all for your support of this story.**

**Prototype: Thank you all for your support. You have no idea how much it means to me-**

**Me: Hey damn it you didn't write any of this. Shut your face.**

**Prototype: Well, see you all next chapter. **


End file.
